In the fallout from his heated interview with Tucker Carlson, Sen. Ted Cruz took to X on Wednesday to share a meme depicting himself as … Luke Skywalker.
The tweet came after Carlson interviewed the Texas senator on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” In the episode, the duo debated over U.S. military intervention in Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran. The former Fox News host grilled Cruz on the topic — or, rather, asked him basic questions about Iran that Cruz was unable to answer.
Cruz referenced the tumultuous interview by posting an AI-generated image of Carlson interviewing the “Star Wars” character. In the meme, Carlson asks, “What is the population of the Death Star?”
In their sit-down, Carlson asked Cruz several questions about the demographic of Iran, including the country’s population and ethnic makeup. This quickly evolved into a screaming match as Cruz failed to provide answers.
“I don’t know the population,” Cruz muttered, to which Carlson asked, “At all?” The politician then repeated his response.
“You don’t know the population of the country you seek … to topple?” the pundit pointedly replied. You can watch the clip below.
It’s worth noting that the meme places Cruz in comparison to Skywalker. Cruz, an establishment senator and member of the nation’s dominant party, bears little in common with the often-pacifistic rebel Jedi. As far as clap-backs go, it’s perhaps not the best conceived post someone could come up with a day later.
The meme likewise carries troubling political implications, as Cruz depicts the entirety of Iran in the same light as the dreaded Death Star. Where the Yavin rebels carried out the full-scale destruction on a planet-killing superweapon, Cruz seemingly implies a country full of people must be similarly razed.
Granted, Cruz doesn’t know how many people actually live there. Plus, check out more of their social media fallout, below.
